Now For the Rebuild...

Wow...That was quick...and in the heat too!

We had some days of rain then, as it does in Summer...it became hot and humid, but work was only held up a day.

They started on Thursday and finished early on a very hot Tuesday with 2 or 3 of them every day, slogging it out in the heat.

Now the shell has been cleared of all the rubble, the paddock hollows filled, it is time to get on with the rebuild in places and/or repairs of the old summer Kitchen.

Have to get the mesh for the footings, some waste pipes etc, a load of cement and lime and so on, over the next few days, then it's off they go again!

Friday or Sunday, they come back to put in the footings, then the weekend after, before pouring the floor slab, they'll underpin the walls, inside and out prepare the top parts of the building to take the bearers around the top and all that is needed to put back a weight bearing ceiling, but we are only doing half a ceiling and leaving half a void. It is a bit of a smallish area to try that, but everything over here is an experiment...so why not?

Imre is waiting for the floor glue to arrive, so the past few days he has completed almost 17 odd jobs for me!

• He fixed the rollers on the shower door, 
• fixed the spinner in my washing machine, 
• pulled down the temporary bathroom wall,  
• to my amazement, made a new door out of a wreck in the paddock...replaced the warped panels in it with the panels he cut out of the front door some months ago, 
• sanded down the door, 
• replaced more wheels on the mower, 
• adjusted the motor again as it was running too fast, 
• put locks on the new windows he made, 
• fixed the legs of a kids bed I have here, 
• stapled 4 seat covers onto the spa deck stools, 
• made a new foot for a bedside table, 
• took the big beds off the verandah and over to the tool shed out of the way for a few months...
• and a heap of other fiddly jobs everyone has hanging around the place!

It feels so gooood!

Some weeds growing along the roadside on my morning jog...

A neighbour gave me these flowers on the way back from the shop on Wednesday....lovely.

Some more weeds and a feather, from the morning jog!

The pics look so different in landscape and portrait!

All my morning treasures...some ready to toss and some just freshly picked!

Went shopping for screws and so on...well, they still count them here! You have to know how many you will need! Too funny.

Made a chocolate cake for a friend's 50th! Check out the candle I found for him in the next pic!

I thought we'd launched a sputnik there for a moment!

Hello...from Bear!

Lots of nice pavers found under all the rubble!

Last week I said I wished we could find a use for the bricks and presto...the guys said they would use them to rebuild! Wow, awesome. Saves a few hundred dollars for sure.

In the mean time Imre had stapled the oil cloth covers onto the fun stools for around the spa... Will be making a proper set of legs for the table, which is an old barrel top/bottom, out of a few of the remaining panels from the barrel walls. Then the blue drum can become another stool again.

Lots of fill going in the paddock here...

Imre fixing the wheels again...one broke on the weekend while I was mowing the bottom paddock...and then he adjusted the revs on the engine...and changed the oil.

Then I decided to go all in and rip out the temporary bathroom wall and get him to do the ceilings here too. Was going to wait until Xmas, as an inside job for him, but keep forgetting that nothing dries here in the winter snow season!

All gone now...

Oh, I love my doors...soon to be painted, along with the rest of the windows etc.

We needed a new door for the bathroom, so I asked Imre if he could "fix" an old door, laying around the yard, put fancy panels in it, cut it down to be 6 inches shorter to match the others. 1 hour later... the top thingy had been cut out, sawn down 6 inches and the main beam replaced!

He removed the old warped masonite panels from the bottom part and we used the nice patterned panels he cut out of the main door a few months ago, when he replaced them with glass.

The panels were an inch too wide and a foot too long, so he cut some wood from the edges and cut the middle foot out of the panel and joined the 2 pieces together so we had a panel with fancy pattern all around. What a legend he is, hey?

You can see the warped masonite panels still in here.

Almost all done!

That's about it for now...

OK...The kitchen is to the left...the 2 oblongs...table and chairs obvious, couch on the back wall. Entry door lower right, near the piece of concrete.Then all around the base of the wall,where there is no white left, they chip out and underpin with real bricks, both inside and out...to stop the gophers/moles from chomping thru the walls.

The wall angles to allow a more spacious look inside. The curved bit, with shovels in the corner, is the spa bath (Honeymoon Cottage!!!) loo in other corner and vanity basin where 3 stones are, the door in is open, as you can see! There will be a window on the wall, that isn't there yet, plus, on the outside of the brick wall that is there, will be a mock window, complete with curtains, to make it look even outside!

Opposite the bathroom and visible from the entry, over there in the corner, are the steps going up to the bed floor upstairs.

All the old whitewash paint on the floor is just from that 2ft by 2 ft piece of ceiling! Amazing!

An hour later...sighhhh...

...and he's only done 2 ...half panels of ceiling so far!

For breakfast on Wednesday, my neighbour gave me some flower buds that are high in Vit C. Very pretty in salads...or on my breakie eggs!

Early morning Imre started the base coating over the ceiling panels, added the mesh stuff, with the whatever he covers it with, waits for it to dry overnight, then applies the white goop, waits overnight for that to dry, then applies 3-4 coats of whitewash. He has to sand the beams yet, as he forgot his sander.

Big day today...the footings are being formed for the big pour before lunch.

I only have 14 apples on the tree this year...last year I had buckets full every few days! Weird.

Zoltan just discovered these nice water melons in his vegie patch!

And these!

Meanwhile, my self sown tomatoes have gone wild again!They all grew by themselves! The poor celery, herbs, parsley and chives are struggling to get light!

Zoltan's very nice and very big veggie garden. The food from here keeps them going virtually all year.

So much for my tidy garden!

The footings pour has begun!

Steel rods in...all set to go!

Good hey?

The last bit for the day and the footings are done!

Almost complete...The front footing is completed too.

Love these massive cake rockets!

That's it for this week...It's been a very busy week indeed with 3- 4 workers here for most of the week.

Anyways, the worst is over, now the floor pit gets filled up with brick rubble, as they have to dig down to solid earth, due to the blessed gophers/moles digging holes everywhere. That means there is a foot deep hole to fill!

Then the floor mesh goes on/in, and they make and pour the cement for the floor, next weekend.
Then the walls go up!

I can't believe this...the glue thing for the floors has been eluding us...mucking up my plans somewhat, but I did not stress about it as I figured something better must be around the corner.

Then on Friday, in at the Tuzep, I was wandering around the yards and in the sheds (they know me now and let me be), anyways, I found a pile of tongue and grooved, highly dressed beautiful real timber flooring!

Nearly fell over as I had asked them for over a year about this and they said "no, they don't have"

So, am off into town first thing in the morning,when the English speaking lady is back on duty, to see if they will take back the timber I have already bought for one room, so I can set aside the beautiful timber for the 3 rooms, plus bath and entry that I found there. The new timber is the same price as laminate flooring, only a bit more than double the price of the rough sawn timber I had already bought. Am really excited now.

See you all next week, with the bathroom wall back up, in a slightly different position...4 inches further inwards, a bathroom door, the ceilings and walls all redone in entry...(bathroom walls done just before Xmas when we moved it) and bathroom ceiling all baby bottom beautiful!

Can't wait now.
Bye, stay well and enjoy your life!

Love, Mary
xxxx